Joined by numerous human rights organizations, members of the Bahai Faith all over the world have been calling attention to the plight of seven Iranian Bahais held in Evin Prison for more than two years. Now there’s been a new development. First, the good news: their 20-year prison sentence has thankfully been reduced. The bad news? They still have to serve 10 years in a woefully overcrowded Iranian prison for a crime they did not commit!
At issue is the gross violation by Iran of international standards of justice which, as outlined by the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights, calls for “freedom of expression,” “freedom of religion,” “equal protection before the law” and the freedom from “arbitrary arrest and detention” — all things denied the seven Iranian Bahais since their arrest in the spring of 2008.
More than a year and a half after being arrested and held without charges, a sham trial began in January of this year in which the lawyers defending the seven religious leaders were given barely an hour’s access to their clients. Strung out over half a year, six hasty courtroom sessions were held, each one characterized by a lack of due process. The abbreviated but slow-moving trial came to an abrupt end on June 14 with convictions for all seven prisoners on charges of espionage, propaganda against the Islamic Republic and the establishment of an illegal administration. Just the kind of trumped-up, blanket charges applied, not just to Bahais, but to virtually anyone in disfavor with the Iranian government including journalists, academics, civil activists and women’s rights defenders.
Of course, the real crime for the seven Bahai leaders was that they were caught being members of a different religion. The 300,000+ members of the Bahai Faith in Iran constitute the largest non-Muslim religious minority in that country and are used to unfair treatment. Starting with the reign of the Shah in mid-19th century Persia, a succession of Iranian governments have brutalized the Bahais in that country. Bahai cemeteries are routinely desecrated and members of the religion are denied jobs, education, and the freedom to worship.
The trial and conviction of the seven Bahai leaders is only the latest development in a deliberate policy of the Iranian government to eliminate the Bahai community. Systematic plans were drawn up in 1991 at the request of the Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the President of Iran at the time.
The governments of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States of America – as well as the European Union and the President of the European Parliament – have already condemned the sentencing of the seven Bahais.
According to the Human Rights Activist News of Iran (HRANA), the convicted Bahais were transferred to Gohardasht, a small prison in Karaj, about 12 miles west of Tehran, Iran’s capital. Designed for a capacity of 90, overcrowding at the prison is so bad that many of its 1,100 prisoners are detained in hallways and staircases or simply held outside the building in exposed, open areas.
The unfair treatment of the seven Bahais in Iran — their prolonged incarceration without charges, the show trial and lack of due process — all constitute a gross injustice. But the more subtle outrage comes with the fact that time is the most precious possession any of us has and it is being irretrievably subtracted from the lives of seven innocent people one day at a time. Considering the advanced age and poor health of some of the prisoners, the long imprisonment is execution on the installment plan.
Most people in the West are unaware of Iran’s legacy of promoting human rights dating all the way back to Cyrus the Great, who founded the Persian Empire around 550 B.C. The religious bigotry of the 21st century Iranian government is alarming because prejudice is paired with power in a combination that is as deadly as it is disconcerting. What is needed is the application of an even more powerful standard of justice — one which everyone can instantly recognize as beneficial to the rights of the individual and the betterment of society.
The seven Bahai leaders are no longer on trial. Now it is the Islamic Republic of Iran which must account for its actions before a global jury in the court of public opinion.
AUTHOR
Randolph Dobbs is the secretary of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahais of Los Angeles and a member of the Regional Bahai Council of the Southwestern States. His articles have been posted to Beliefnet.com, Iranian.com, Muslim Network for Bahai Rights and many other websites.
